In Lands Where Serpents Speak
This story has a fairy tale/mythical quality. References are made to Rapunzel, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty – all three were locked away because of their “beauty” with freedom coming only in the form of another's desire.
'Indirectly' says Janni Perton, ‘the source of ideas behind the film stem from my experience of being in Colombia. The timeless quality of the landscape and the attitudes of its people are reflected in the mood of the film. They say before this day... one spoke to others only in questions, that all were equal in humility to the land?'
Weaving a tale of happenings – frozen in time – long, long ago, ‘In Lands Where Serpents Speak’ presents on one level a re-working of the myth of Narcissus. On other levels it offers a series of ideas about time, language, memory and how man came to see himself as the centre of the universe (and how woman did not).
Description Source: Cinenova Catalogue (1994). Edited by Kate Norrish. Editorial committee: Elaine Burrows, Liane Harris, Helen de Witt
